Love is a Fickle Thing

YourBeautifulDisaster; well they act like the movie events never happened in the anime, so that's how I'm treating the issue. Besides, the first kiss is way more meaningful.

Epilogue

"Come on Kagome, those shards aren't going to find themselves!" Inuyasha called. Kagome didn't even look up from refilling her water bottles.

"Sit."

"Gah!"

"Ha, take that mutt!"

"Down."

"Gah!" Kagome twisted the cap onto the bottle and stepped over the sprawled bodies of Inuyasha and Kouga behind her. Shippo slurped his sucker and looked down at them.

"You two can't get along for a minute, can you?" he asked. Two groans answered him. Kagome laughed and shook her head. A few weeks after she made her confession to Inuyasha, things were more or less back to normal. The air was routinely filled with cries of 'dog shit', 'mangy wolf', and usually following those two, 'down' and 'sit'.

When Kouga had returned later that day, she had told him she didn't want to be his mate anymore. He had been crushed, but in true Kouga style, rebounded with the simple claim that she would grow to love him in time. To that end, the wolf had continued to travel with them, refraining from calling Kagome his woman, but not refraining from most of his other flirtatious behavior.

Of course, it didn't mean a lot to Kagome anymore. While it was nice for Kouga to so openly display affection for her time and time again, it was equally endearing for Inuyasha to be so…different towards her in private. His wasn't quite as ambitious as Kouga's gestures, but they still warmed her heart. A few minutes of clasped hands when the group wasn't looking, a warm glance across the fire before they slept.

To say she had gotten her dream that day wasn't exactly true. Inuyasha had said he cared for her. He had kissed her and held her. But that was it, besides his recent affections. No confession of love had ever passed his lips, and the words had never passed hers except for that one time. But then she remembered Kikyo's words, and was perfectly content for the time being with the unspoken relationship they shared.

The bruise of Kouga's mark had faded a week after she rejected him, meaning she was free to receive the mark of another. Fortunately, Inuyasha had adverted the potentially awkward issue by taking her aside and explaining he wanted to defeat Naraku before they did anything like that. Kagome, with her ability to see the shards, was already a large target for the dark hanyou. If she became arranged to mate Inuyasha, she'd might as well paint a giant red bulls-eye on her back. Inuyasha hadn't understood the phrase and shook his head muttering about stupid future wenches who speak with nonsense words.

Kagome picked up her backpack and looked at Sango and Miroku who were ready to go. Shippo ran up to them and perched on Miroku's shoulder.

"Well let's go." Kagome said. Kouga jumped to his feet and grinned.

"I'll scout ahead and try to sniff out Naraku." He shouted, running ahead. Inuyasha picked himself out of his small crater and dusted himself off. He walked beside Kagome as the procession went on, following Kouga's tornado. Kagome looked up at Inuyasha.

"Sorry for sitting you." She said.

"Keh, whatever." Inuyasha muttered.

"Can you forgive me?" Kagome pleaded. Inuyasha's lips curled up to a slight smile as his hand found hers between them.

"I'll think about it."

Well there we go! 23 chapters and 3 months finally over! I'd like to thank all 261 reviewers for reviewing. An extra chapter might have put me over 300, but oh well. I'd also like to thank…

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For putting this on their fav lists. That's 49 people, guys. If someone would put this on their fav stories list and put me over 50, I'd be honored. Anyway, thanks for reading and be sure to check out my other stories. In this story, we saw Kouga as a kind, loving, caring man. In Broken Dreams, we explore the other end of the spectrum. See ya around!

Drake